Hippocampal-prefrontal mechanisms of learning to learn

项目摘要 哺乳动物的大脑非常善于从经验中快速学习。我们可以很快形成概括 关于我们的环境基于以前获得的知识，我们能够建立和维护详细的 在一次暴露于刺激之后的记忆。这种快速的、依赖经验的学习， 图式，或学习集，这是学习的认知结构，组织知识和塑造如何传入 感官信息被解释。一个相关的现象是学会学习，这是观察时的经验， 任务加速了对具有类似结构的新任务或问题的学习。几十年的实验工作 强调海马体和前额叶皮层的重要作用|及其相互作用|在联想学习中 和记忆巩固然而，学习的神经机制仍然是未知的。 从先前的经验中学习对于成功的日常生活至关重要，而这种技能在患者中受损 患有一些神经系统疾病，如阿尔茨海默氏病，注意力障碍，颞叶癫痫， 抑郁症和精神分裂症，这些疾病共同影响着数千万美国人。深入了解 学习的大脑机制可以为学习的神经学基础提供重要的见解- 这些患者的相关疾病，并可用于开发针对记忆丧失和学习的有效干预措施 破坏为了研究学会学习的神经机制，我们将记录神经元群体的活动， 海马体和前额叶皮层作为动物获得视觉关联任务的学习集。在目标1中，我们 确定海马和前额叶内的神经元活动模式在学习集形成过程中是如何转变的 支持快速学习。在目标2中，我们将描述海马和海马之间协调活动的变化。 前额叶皮层负责学习模式的形成我们假设学习集的获得伴随着一个 逐步出现稳定的、抽象的任务相关信息的神经表征，这些信息可以从 问题到问题，从而在学习期间约束神经探索空间并导致更快的学习 通过经验。此外，我们期望观察到从大脑皮层依赖性到大脑皮层依赖性的逐渐转变 在学习的过程中，学习的过程。

Project summary The mammalian brain is remarkably ecient at rapidly learning from experience. We can quickly form generalizations about our environment based on previously acquired knowledge, and we are able to establish and maintain detailed memories after just a single exposure to a stimulus. This rapid, experience-dependent learning is critically dependent on schemas, or learning sets, which are learned cognitive structures that organize knowledge and shape how incoming sensory information is interpreted. A related phenomenon is learning to learn, which is observed when experience with a task accelerates the learning of novel tasks or problems with a similar structure. Decades of experimental work have emphasized the essential role of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex|and their interactions|in associative learning and memory consolidation. However, the neural mechanisms underlying learning to learn remain largely unknown. Learning eciently from prior experience is crucial for successful everyday life, and this skill is impaired in patients with a number of neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, attention de cit disorder, temporal lobe epilepsy, depression, and schizophrenia, which collectively a ect tens of millions of Americans. A deeper understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying learning to learn can provide important insights into the neurological basis of learning- related de cits in these patients, and can be used to develop e ective interventions targeted at memory loss and learning disruption. To investigate the neural mechanisms of learning to learn, we will record neuronal population activity in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex as animals acquire a learning set for a visual association task. In Aim 1, we will determine how neuronal activity patterns within hippocampus and prefrontal transform during learning set formation to support rapid learning. In Aim 2, we will characterize the changes in coordinated activity between hippocampus and prefrontal cortex that re ect learning set formation. We hypothesize that learning set acquisition is accompanied by a progressive emergence of stable, abstract neural representations of task-related information that can be re-used from problem to problem, thereby constraining the neural exploration space during learning and leading to faster learning through experience. In addition, we expect to observe a gradual shift from hippocampus-dependent to cortex-dependent representations throughout the process of learning to learn.